Funding and Manufacturing Progress!

We’ve been super busy out fundraising, speaking to investors and getting a new factory lined up since our last update and we have some great news to share.

Funding

We’ve closed several angel investors in the past few weeks who have provided seed funding. These funds will help us resume development and pay for the manufacturing, tooling, testing and expenses, but we are continuing to work towards hitting our funding target to cover all costs.

The priority of these initial seed funds will be used by us as follows:

- Software development and testing for Version 1.0 - Completion of the tooling- FCC certification testing

Over the next weeks and months, we will continue to meet with investors to ensure we can finance our production ramp and continue to develop the software after launch to enable more features and services for photo sharing.

Development

One of our investors is also bringing their software team on board to augment our efforts and help accelerate the completion of the software, testing and UI improvements.

The key members of their team have incredible depth and experience from companies such as Netflix, Nest and Apple, and will help make the Instacube software and UI an amazing experience.

Manufacturing

We’ve identified our new manufacturing partner and are about to kick-off with their team in Shenzhen this week. They are a top-tier manufacturer that is building similar products in the tablet market in the hundreds of thousands of units so we have a lot of confidence in their capabilities.

We’re excited to partner with them and to leverage their supply chain and experience to help us get to market and continue to develop the next-gen hardware.

Schedule

We’re still pushing hard for an October shipment, but can’t confirm an exact date until we discuss the detailed schedule with the new factory this week and get their confirmed commitment on the key milestones.

Thanks for yet another super late update with yet another fake delivery date. Sorry, not interested anymore. Will definitely be requesting a refund once you have "sold" mine back to some other poor schmuck. http://www.familyday.com.cn/familycube/ I think it speaks volumes that China has developed, tested and marketed this thing in the time it has taken you to get this far.

I've not backed another project since as I think that the crowd-funding system is seriously flawed. I feel for the people who invested heavily in this idea (two backers at $10,000 and one at $5000). At least mine was only a small investment.

@Christian I'm in the US, and actually PAY for an American Express gold card, and they gave me the finger too. 60 days from the charge, doesn't matter when delivery was expected. Escalated up two levels of management for the same story. I may try an email with update #17, but I think most folks are probably screwed.

But, everyone else with chargeback comments below, you're not pulling one dime from D2M (though I'll admit, if I could get my $349 back I wouldn't care where it came from either). In this case, you paid Kickstarter with your credit card, via Amazon payment processing. If you initiate a chargeback, the CC company notifies Amazon, and Amazon notifies Kickstarter. Kickstarter can either make their case to keep the money (and pay Amazon $10 to fight for them), or return the money to the CC company. (https://payments.amazon.com/sdui/sdui/helpTab/Amazon-Simple-Pay/Resolving-Disputes/Chargeback-Process) Kickstarter likely just returns the money and chalks it up to the cost of doing business. If they wanted to fight it, I suspect they'd succeed, because the terms of use make it clear they did everything they promised to do (not much).

As a result of this fiasco I've scaled my crowd funding WAY back, and that is a shame. Kickstarter doesn't do anything valuable for the 5% fee they collect, including protecting their community. The D2M team should be ashamed of the way they've handled this. I backed the Rigidbot, a 3D printer project, with ONE person behind it that has a day job, and he's provided WEEKLY updates since the project close, and will be delivering quite near on time with a far more complex project done in less time. We found out about the delay the same week it happened of course because he's been great about communication. That one person has humiliated you Andy, and everyone on your team in my mind.

@All you guys with a successfull refund: Which CreditCard do you use? Visa showed me their middle finger. Refund only possible after 4 month at charging time. I am from Germany, but they said, that this would regard all Visa customers around the world.

So you are using the new investment money to "Software development and testing for Version 1.0 ". Why are you on version 1.0? I'm pretty sure this community saw a demo where the software was presented. Shouldn't that have been version 1.0 or later. Why the hell are you starting from the beginning? It’s funny that less people posted this time when compared against the last updates... looks like you guys won. People have grown disinterested in arguing for their money back. Enjoy the new lifestyle our money afforded you. The only solace I have is that if you manage your personal expenses like you managed this project you'll be broke in no time.

The credit card needs to see that the merchandise was not shipped according to written expectations, and it cannot be more than 5 months in the past. I initially had trouble because the written expectation was March 2013 and that was too long ago for me to have dispute rights anymore.

However, search your email and look for update #17 in which they promise a July shipment date. Once I provided that written proof to the CC they immediately refunded my money no questions asked.

Mega Spork, I like your positive outlook towards D2M, but don't slam others, remember D2M raised over half a million a year ago, and the recent update shows that they just started on a project that raised all that $ over a year ago and has nothing to show except that they need more $ to start over. People have the right to "cry you a river" they invested and feel screwed. From a company stand point do you think D2M has done a great job? Look at facts don't slam upset backers, use your positive energy to go help Andy and his super awesome productive team finish this complicated project.

@Mark Walz - Your comment that Instagram isn't as popular as it was a year ago is false. Check out Mary Meeker's talk on internet trends for 2013. You'll see that Instacube is one of the fastest growing social media sites.

@KRIS - You are obviously insane. Sending the team at D2M to prison for fraud and/or "banning" them from the US is a fool's pursuit, and you obviously don't get the idea of crowdfunding. Investments are a risk... and you made an investment in Instacube. Yes, so far it hasn't worked out exactly as any of us hoped... Cry me a river.

@huang he - Maybe D2M can sue the Family Cube folks to raise some extra capital.

In this sea of negativity, I'd like to leave a word of encouragement for the folks at D2M. I still believe in Instacube, and I still believe in crowdfunding. Here's why: Even though Instacube is not a physical reality (yet), it is still an innovative idea, it still inspires me, and it still gives me hope that one day I will be able to use my Instacube to share photos with my family members who aren't exactly "techies". I believe Instacube will still be a viable product, and I will not be requesting a refund. Keep up the hard work guys. I will still jump for joy when my Instacubes arrive, despite the setbacks in the build process. Don't be discouraged, and never stop creating.

So was the software we saw in the video all fake? Because that is what it seems like. This seems like a "truth in advertising" issue where you showed a "working prototype" with simulated screens without stating that it was simulated and NOT a working prototype.

Superbacker

@Huang He: That Chinese 'FamilyCube' looks strikingly similar to the Instacube... down to the colored stripes on the side. I'd not be surprised if the company behind it is actually D2M's former partner.